Up to 18.5 hours of Maintenance of Certification self-assessment credit available.

Overview

The Washington University Department of Surgery is one of the nation's leading academic surgery departments. We are committed to excellence in patient care, advancing basic science and clinical research, and training tomorrow's leaders in academic surgery.

Throughout its history, the Department has been a leader in surgical innovation. Evarts Graham, the Bixby Professor and first full-time chairman, performed the first successful lung removal, thereby opening a new era in thoracic surgery. More recently, our faculty members have developed a genetic test that detects whether an individual will develop a form of thyroid cancer and would benefit from thyroid removal; created a cure for atrial fibrillation; and performed the world’s first nerve transplant using nerve tissue from a cadaver donor.

Our surgeons treat patients at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and St. Louis Children’s Hospital, which consistently make the U.S. News & World Report Honor Rolls of American’s best hospitals and children’s hospitals, respectively. Our surgical care contributes to the high rankings of a number of specialties at both hospitals. We also see patients and perform procedures at a number of other medical centers in the St. Louis region and beyond.

The Department was an early leader in training general, thoracic, plastic and reconstructive, and urologic surgery residents. Today, our faculty continues to train tomorrow’s surgical leaders through these residencies and fellowships in a wide range of specialties.

Produced and Directed by StoryTrack.

The Department of Surgery worked with StoryTrack to produce a video commemorating the first 100 years of surgery at Washington University School of Medicine. The video incorporated the themes and photographic images from a book on the history of the department, "A Surgical Department of Distinction," written by award-winning author Candace O'Connor.